International Women's Day was yesterday, a big, ahem, international holiday... only why is it not celebrated in America?

Perhaps it was something to do with its roots. It was first proposed at the 1910 International Socialist Women's Conference by Luise Zietz and Clara Zetkin, and spread through Europe as socialism grew. America obviously frowned, and decided to celebrate its women by offering them top-of-the-line household appliances. To each their own.

Zietz is a rather obscure figure, so Zetkin is usually credited with the holiday. She was a leading German feminist, a co-founder of the German Communist Party, who found refuge in the Soviet Union after the Nazi rise. She was not Jewish, although the Nazis tried to propagate that rumor. However, her last name does come from her husband partner, Ossip Zetkin, a Russian Jew.

Now, interestingly, the first proposal for a women's holiday came from Theresa Merkel, a Jewish American socialist. National Woman's Day was held in New York in 1909, but was sadly rendered to obscurity. Socialists have some good ideas, America!